Solving the blockchain oracle problem to enable supply chain mass adoption.

As the growth of blockchain technology accelerates, attention towards mass adoption among institutions and supply chains are following suit. Smart contracts represent a blockchain application that has the potential to enhance and transform many facets of a supply chain by eliminating intermediaries, more effective transactions, reducing costs, anti-tampering, transparency, etc. However, the application of smart contracts will be severely limited if it cannot access real - world, off-chain data. The blockchain technology is intentionally designed to prevent this to ensure security of the network. Therefore, blockchain oracles are utilized to connect the blockchain to off-chain data sources. Data sources such as IoT sensors or web APIs are often centralized entities that are relatively easy to attack in comparison to a blockchain network. Using such oracles in turn opens the blockchain to a single point of failure. This phenomenon is known as the oracle problem, erasing the benefits of adopting blockchain technology in the first place. Therefore, this problem needs to be addressed before mass adoption within supply chains can take place. This paper discusses this problem in detail and highlights several available blockchain projects that can address this issue. This paper also proposes several methods that supply chains can consider in addressing the oracle problem, including the use of interoperability solutions, decentralized oracle systems, or implementing a hybrid solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]